New investigation of Sroubek case

The Czech drug smuggler at the centre of an immigration storm did travel to Europe in 2009, court documents show.

That was despite implications that Karel Sroubek’s safety was at risk if he returned to the Czech Republic. Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway has now ordered Immigration NZ to investigate Sroubek’s residency application. The investigation would be done by Immigration NZ’s compliance team and it is understood it would examine new allegations that Sroubek had already been back to the Czech Republic, and his ex-wife is no longer supporting his application.

However, it was revealed yesterday that court documents show a ‘‘variation of bail’’ application was granted by the High Court in Auckland in 2009 under Sroubek’s false name (Jan Antolik), to allow him to travel to the Czech Republic for business.

He returned to Europe but it is uncertain whether he travelled to the Czech Republic.

National’s immigration spokesman Michael Woodhouse said the existence of the court documents showed the minister had not done his homework.

‘‘It was very clear on the public record what had been speculated – that despite claims of fear of being sent back to Czech Republic, he was voluntarily going back and living in plain sight.’’

National’s justice spokesman Mark Mitchell said it took his party about one day to uncover the information about Sroubek.

He was confident more information would come to light.

Lees-Galloway rejected speculation that public documents were the information he had not received. He said the debacle highlighted it would be a worthwhile exercise to reflect on the decision making process, to see if improvements could be made.

The drug smuggler was granted residency while serving jail time instead of facing being deported after serving his prison sentence. Lees-Galloway made the special residency decision, even though the 37-year-old Czech national came to New Zealand on a false passport.